From Ian Cooper, Author Trigger Point Trade Alerts

A New Ransomware Attack Just Hit Hundreds of U.S. Companies

We were attacked again.

Over the holiday weekend, hundreds of businesses were hit with a ransomware attack. 

In fact, “Huntress Labs, a cyber-security firm, said the colossal ransomware attack occurred first at Kaseya, a Florida-based IT company, and then spread through the corporate networks that use its software,” reported the New York Post.

In addition, “The REvil ransomware gang, also known as Sodinokibi, is publicly demanding $70 million to restore the data it’s holding ransom after their data-scrambling software affected hundreds of small and medium businesses across a dozen countries – including schools in New Zealand and supermarkets in Sweden,” noted Reuters.

All because most businesses and even governments remain unprepared for attacks.

In fact, not only is the U.S. government still unprepared, but cities, hospitals, schools, and a good deal of companies aren’t ready. According to FireEye, as noted by Cybersecurity Insiders, about 29% of organizations haven’t even bothered to test their cyber defenses in over a year.

Worse, according to cybersecurity company, Veronis:

  • 95% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error
  • Global cybercrime costs could reach $6 trillion a year
  • Ransomware damage costs could rise to 420 billion this year
  • Businesses could fall victim to ransomware attacks every 11 seconds

Yet, the world is still unprepared with more attacks likely.

FireEye, for example, was just hired by ransomware-hit IT firm, Kaseya to help it deal with the fallout of the latest breach, says Reuters. “Kaseya said its employees have been actively engaged with FireEye and other security assessment firms to investigate the attack, which struck on Friday and quickly spread across the globe.”

Ian Cooper

PS-To see how news stories like the cyber attacks can affect stock prices, click here